16ga.com ~ View topic

Yes I know it is heresy for the site, but amidst my five 16's gauges I have two 20's (5 1/4 lb Francotte & LC Smith 5E)

I am looking for a below 7,000 PSI load for 20 gauge 2 3/4 inch

The lowest pressure reload I have found to date was a 1200 FPS/7,000 PSI on the http://www.hodgdon.com/ site for a federal hull use 21.5 gr 4756 powder, Rem. 209P primer, RXP20 wad, 7/8 oz lead, in a federal 2 3/4 hull

You are going to be hard-pressed to find many, if any, 20 ga. loads under 7000 psi. That said, find a copy of Reloading for Shotgunners, 4th Ed. There are several loads in the 7000 range in it.

You'll find that most of the low pressure loads will occur in poly-formed hulls rather than the compression-formed ones.

Several powders, Unique, 800X, 4756, etc. seem to deliver lower pressures in loads using them.

I do see a couple of loads in the 5900 LUP range in the Fiocchi hull but I think that pressure is suspect as it is far below anything else I see.

I found this in the Lyman 5th Ed.

Fiocchi 20 Ga. 2-3/4 7/8 SR 7625 17.5 CCI 209 Fed 20S11,206.00 6,800.00

Probably the best solution and one I would use would be to find a load close to the pressure I want then download powder and/or lead and send it to Tom Armbrust for pressure and velocity testing. He charges $5/round. Three rounds (with shot and powder weighed for accuracy) should be adequate to get accurate data.
TerryS

Old Colonel,
There are a few out there but not many. I would have your L.C. Smith 5E checked, unless you or someone had it re-chambered, they came with 2 1/2" chambers until the mid 1930's.

If you find some in 2 3/4" length and want to be safe in your "elsie", cut them to 2 1/2" and roll crimp them, the pressure should be the same or even slightly less than a fold crimp using the same componants.

You are correct LC's 20ga were 2.5 in through the mid 1940"s

In order to avoid issues the chambers and forcing cones have been lengthened. I have verified the dimensions.

Joined: 12 Dec 2008 Posts: 1

Hello Old Colonel,

My wife is a small woman- 5 feet tall and 95 pounds. Since we shoot skeet and sporting clays we go through a lot of shells. Further, since her 20 Berretta 391 is her favorite gun we needed a good low pressure load for her.

We tried several loads and here is what we came up with:

From "Reloading for Shotgunners, 5th Ed.":

Federal Plastic hull, Fed 209A, IMR 800X (17.5), RXP20 (7/8 oz) - 7600psi

Remington hulls, Fed 209A, IMR 800X (16.0), RXP20 (7/8 oz) - 9100psi

We couldn't feel a noticable difference between the two loads, but there is a huge difference between both of them and a typical promotional or "off the shelf" load. The Remington shells are preferred because we find them to be more reload-friendly, crimp better, and we just like them.

The load makes enough pressure to reliably cycle our shotguns (her Berratta 391 and my Rem 1100). We shoot 100's of rounds in a day and feel godd when we leave the range. This was not the case when we were buying promo loads.

I did try a couple of other low pressure loads but just didn't like them as much as the Remington load I mention above.

I hope this helps.

daburoker, What kind of velocity are those two loads supposed to be producing? Thanks in advance.